Author
Topic: The Hobbit - Toy Line (Read 20610 times)

I know most here are more interested in the 3 3/4" stuff (which I love too), but I did open up a couple of the 6" figures (Gandalf and Bilbo), and have to say that they are pretty nicely done. They seem to fit in pretty well with the earlier Toy Biz stuff from LOTR, and look like larger (and more detailed) versions of the 3 3/4" figures. Pretty nice.

So, I emailed The Bridge Direct and asked them a question about whether or not there will be more than one wave of product for this movie. They responded to my question, but they tacked this on to the end of it:

Quote

The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and contains confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, re-transmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer.

Am I supposed to taker this as a generic warning, or that I should not publicly post their response? I am figuring just the generic business footer warning.

I saw some more of the line at TRU tonight. And perhaps my initial sighting of the basic carded Bilbo was an anomoly, or I saw a bad batch of figures. Because the individually carded Bilbo figures from the 3.75" scale line looked much better, and far less glossy than what I had previously seen.

I also saw a 5 pack that features Bilbo, Thorin, Kili, Fili & Dwalin. That looked okay. I also saw the deluxe Warg & Orc, as well as some 2-packs. But I have to say, I'm a little surprised that there are a couple of different price points for the 2-packs. Prices for 2-packs with Biblo and Gollum were less expensive than the set that features Gandalf and the albino Orc. It comes across a little odd. Why not find a middle ground in terms of the price point, and just offer a single line of figure 2-packs?

Logged

"You were entrusted to lead the Republic." - Vote for Ven Zallow from THE OLD REPUBLIC in figure polls!

That is a heck of a wait. I'm still interested to see how this line does. With the LOTR figures (at least initially) it seemed like that line was doing pretty well, hitting with both kids and collectors at the time. It just seems like a little bit more of a different landscape than even 10 years ago or so, as far as toy buying goes. I really like the line, and if it is that big of a gap until the next new stuff shows up, I guess I'm relatively caught up on things. I still need to pick up the larger "deluxe" 2 packs, and I think that's it. A shame we won't be able to get all of the dwarves for a bit though.

They must be planning a multipack down the line that's going to feature Bilbo, Gandalf and all of the dwarves. But I think that Bridge Direct wants to get several other individual figures and multipacks out there before they make that particular offering.

Logged

"You were entrusted to lead the Republic." - Vote for Ven Zallow from THE OLD REPUBLIC in figure polls!

Yeah, I could see something like that too. I guess I'm a little surprised there is that much of a break between waves, but it is almost like the vintage days of Star Wars as far as release numbers. 10-20 figures a year, not too bad to keep up with. The only thing is, I don't recall from the book that there are many "costume" changes for the main characters...so maybe that is why we aren't seeing all of them at once, and then just have the same figures re-released for each of the next two films.

I can't think that smaller, measured releases would be a bad thing for this movie. We've all seen what can happen when you go overboard on releases, not have the toy line take off and the whole thing collapses. The last 4 or 5 years has had a huge string of toy lines follow that model. If BD can keep interest, sell through well and then wait until things heat up for the next movie, they could potentially get a 4 year run out of their line of toys.

E...

Logged

"I sell the drugs that keep you people from seeing dragons at night." - Gus "Psych"

But maybe (hopefully) the person responding to my email is wrong? BBTS also had these up on their site when they put everything up super early and was forced to take them down:

3.75” Goblin King Playset ($44.99) - unles this is just the Goblin King set and the price was loweredand according to a list he saw on toyark:Beast Pack Series 1: Stone Troll and Nori - and this makes perfect sense to come out for the first movie - heck they should do three of these types of packs!

But also going off of what Nicklab said earlier, it is pretty odd that they have so many different price points throughout this line - one would think we would see some sort of assortment to them at some point...

here is their email address if anyone else wants to shoot them an email and see if they can get any responses: contact@thebridgedirect.com

My question was general - I figured it would be a good starting to point. It was full of me a$$ kissing and just asking when we might see more product beyond the first initial wave of everything out now.

The shelf placement alone seems to be marginal at the stores where I saw them. Not a whole lot of shelf space to begin with. Perhaps 2 feet, tops, and it's mid aisle. There's no endcap presence, or banners. And with the movie less than 2 months out, I would expect a more concerted promotional push.

With BD being relatively new to the boys toys world, I think they might have some challenges facing them. But these are looking serious. They may have some old ToyBiz people on board, but it doesn't look like they're making much headway in merchandising with Toys R Us.

Logged

"You were entrusted to lead the Republic." - Vote for Ven Zallow from THE OLD REPUBLIC in figure polls!